Question for the Day

[fjm]

I woke up with this in my head: if you write, why do you write?

Comments

[anna_wing]

For the fun of putting words together in an elegant and eloquent way.

Also, in the case of my Tolkien fanfic, to argue with the original author.

[purplecthulhu]

To find out what happens

[clarentine]

+1

[ideealisme]

Because I am obsessed with it and I'm good at it. But also these days because Ireland gaslights me when I attempt to point out its faults and name names, so the only place left to indict it is on the page, in a safe genre like historical fiction.

There's a reason why there are so many Irish novelists.

[carl_allery]

Because I can or perhaps, more accurately, because I can't not. I can go for a long time without actual words on page, but ideas still ambush me and have to be written down and then, eventually, I get to the stage where I see a scene and really need to write down what's happening. And when it's all working properly there's a huge buzz from making good wordage happen. It's a cheap, legal, natural high (though perhaps more accurately 'flow') so, yes, I'm going to make it happen as much as I can. :)

I blame it on my English teacher who gave us one last hoorah of writing 'stories' before declaring all homework would henceforth be focused on reading comprehension and literature. Seriously, how come writing fiction is not considered a vital English language skill?

[fjm]

it is now.

[carl_allery]

Ah. Good to know. :)

[davidwake]

The question is the wrong way round: why do the stories choose me?